¡Que viva México! was a film project undertaken in 1931-32 by Soviet film-maker Sergei Eisenstein for American socialist author Upton Sinclair and several investors, which Eisenstein eventually conceived as an episodic portrayal of Mexican culture and politics from pre-Conquest civilization to the Mexican revolution. Over 200,000 feet of silent film were shot before production had to be stopped due to exhaustion of finances and Stalin's demands that Eisenstein return to the USSR. This is one of several attempts to make a feature film out of the existing footage, here according to Eisenstein's skeletal outline and under the supervision of Gregori Alexandrov, Eisenstein's long-time collaborator, including on this project.
A young woman, who wants to be in the Follies, is making ends meet by working at a department store's sheet music department, where she sings the latest hits. She is accompanied on piano by her childhood boyfriend, who is in love with her, despite her single-minded interest in her career. When a vaudeville performer asks her to join him as his new partner, she sees it as an opportunity to make her dream come true. Upon arriving in New York City, our heroine finds out that her new partner is only interested in sleeping with her and makes this a condition of making her a star. Soon, however, she is discovered by a representative of Ziegfeld.
A naive country girl is tricked into a sham marriage by a wealthy womanizer, then must rebuild her life despite the taint of having borne a child out of wedlock.
